Food 2 Go-Go: Oregon strip club pivots to dancing drive-through and food delivery

Record ID: 1549444

  • Title: Food 2 Go-Go: Oregon strip club pivots to dancing drive-through and food delivery
  • Date: 28th April 2020
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) LUCKY DEVIL LOUNGE OWNER, SHON BOULDEN, SAYING: "And I jumped on Twitter that night and said 'Hey, we're going to keep our kitchen going, we're going to try and keep our employees staffed and then as a joke, I posted we're going to send topless dancers to your door and call it Boober and I sent that tweet out. The next day, I got up the next morning and checked my Twitter and it had just been shared 150 times and it had just basically gone viral overnight and all of a sudden a lightbulb went off in my head and I was like 'I think we should probably do this'." LUCKY DEVIL EATS SIGN WOMAN TAKING ORDER OVER PHONE CHEFS IN THE KITCHEN TWO GO-GO DELIVERY DANCERS WALKING DOWN STREET WITH SECURITY BEHIND DANCERS STANDING IN FRONT OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE ORDERED THE SERVICE DANCER PULLING OUT ORDER (SOUNDBITE) (English) LUCKY DEVIL EATS DANCER AND DELIVERY GIRL, OLIVIA, SAYING: "We hand them the food. Usually I'll just place it on the ground, if I can do that smoothly and give them a little shake and try to ask them how they're doing and make sure they're doing well and try to give them a social interaction so they're getting their food but they're also getting that camaraderie from a person." (SOUNDBITE) (English) LUCKY DEVIL LOUNGE OWNER, SHON BOULDEN, SAYING: "The biggest thing is that we're continuing to employ all of our staff. We're continuing to employ our security, our cooks, our bartenders and the dancers that work here so everybody has been able to pivot into this new position of this food delivery service, so..." CAR ARRIVING FOR DRIVE THROUGH
  • Embargoed: 12th May 2020 01:30
  • Keywords: Dancers business drive through food delivery go-go staff strip club
  • Location: PORTLAND, OREGON, UNITED STATES;
  • City: PORTLAND, OREGON, UNITED STATES;
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Human-Led Quirky,Human-Led Stories,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA003CBEMONT
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS NOTE: CONTAINS NUDITY
    An Oregon strip club forced into the takeout-dining business in the age of coronavirus has returned to its burlesque roots by offering delivery and drive-through services featuring exotic dancers - a concept the owner has promoted as "Food 2 Go-Go."
    The red-toned interior of the Lucky Devil Lounge in southeast Portland has been closed to customers since Governor Kate Brown banned large public gatherings statewide and ordered bars and eateries to end in-house service on March 16.
    As in many states locking down commerce to curb the spread of COVID-19, the governor permitted restaurants to continue with carry-out and deliveries.
    Determined to keep some semblance of his business intact, Lucky Devil owner Shon Boulden quickly retooled his kitchen to begin off offering food for delivery the very next day, though receipts plummeted absent the club's usual main attractions of scantily clad dancers and a cash bar.
    "Our revenue stream went to zero overnight," Boulden said in a recent interview with Reuters, recalling that he tried in desperation to suggest in a Twitter message that the club would send its dancers out to deliver food.
    The tweet was a joke, but it went viral.
    "All of a sudden, a light bulb went off in my head, and I said, 'I think we should do this,'" Boulden recounted.
    Within weeks, the Lucky Devil was up and running with two new adult-entertainment takeout innovations - a drive-through strip show for carry-out orders, and food deliveries by dancers - accompanied by bouncers to enforce proper social distancing.
    The club charges $30 extra for each option. Food prices have been kept the same.
    "The response has been awesome," Boulden said.
    The club's drive-through, set up in its parking lot, has drawn the most attention. Motorized customers are directed into a large tent, where they are greeted from stages on both sides by pole-dancing women wearing sequined masks and gloves, and little else but pasties, G-string bikini bottoms and leg warmers.
    The performances include throbbing music furnished by a D.J., stage lights and door prizes handed out to customers at a safe distance by the dancers using long plastic grabbers - like those used to pick up litter. The giveaways include samples from a local cannabis dispensary and rolls of toilet paper.
    Inside the club, bartenders take carry-out food orders instead of serving drinks, while a dozen dancers mill about, waiting to go on delivery runs or perform in the tent. One
    dancer, who goes by the stage name Karma Jane, performed pole dances on Saturday night garbed in a full gas mask.
    Patrons that night ranged from carloads of young men to a couple on a motorcycle who were club regulars before the pandemic, to a group of women who said they made a 175-mile drive south from Seattle to see the show for themselves.
    "I was like, 'I might as well take a drive. It's a safe way to have some fun," said one of them, Dani Valdes, who works in bars and restaurants in the Seattle area and follows some of the Lucky Devil dancers on social media.
    Boulden said his business is still taking a big hit, with the club generating only about a sixth of its pre-pandemic revenue and most employees getting by on the equivalent of
    minimum wage.
    One dancer, who goes by the moniker Elle Stranger, said she has worked in the business for 11 years and is now making up some of her lost income through digital porn and erotica. She also works as a sex educator and writer.
    "I miss the athleticism and the opportunity to make tips," she said of the reduced workload at the Lucky Devil. But she feels gratified by providing a much-needed social distraction from the gloom of the pandemic.
    "The novelty in these really dark, uncertain times is just enough to pick people up," she said.
    (Production: Terray Sylvester/Rollo Ross)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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